Inauguration of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study Vision of the Founding Fathers*

Inauguration of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study Vision of the Founding Fathers* The idea of gifting the premises of the Rashtrapati Niwas, the former Viceregal Lodge, at Shimla, to the Indian Institute of Advanced Study was conceived by Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, wh en h e was the President of India, in dialogue with Pandit J awaharlal Nehru. Subsequently, on the 6th of O ctober,l964, the liAS Society was registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860. Dr Zakir Hussain, Vice-President oflndia, was its first President and M.C. Chagla, U nion Minister of Education, its first Vice-President. Professor Niharranjan Ray was chosen to be the first Director of the Institute. The primary objective of the Institute according to its Memorandum of Association was "to provide an atmosphere suitable for academic research" in the humanities and ·in social and natural sciences. As Chagla pointed out in h-is "Introductory Address" a t the inaugural function: This is a unique institution ... in the first instance because in a place which was the symbol of imperialism and of viceregal splendoUJ~ we are now going to have a symbol ofsc holarship and research. There would be "no curricula, no courses of studies, no faculties, no examinations, and ... no degrees." We want to create here an atmosphere of real research and scholarship where people can come, discourse with each other and carry on the work of expanding the horizons of knowledge. Addressing President Radhakrishnan, Chagla said towards the end of his "Introductory Address": Now, Sir, in this Institute we are going to put special su·ess on humanities *Compiled mostly from t.h e records of ·tl1e Indian Institute of Advanced Study. See 11-ansaclion.s l, liAS, Shimla, 1966. 2 INDIAN TNSfiTUTE OF ADVANCED STUDY and I am sure that it will appeal to your heart We, as a nation, want to become modern and scientifically minded. But in this pursuit, we must pause from time to time and ifl might put it this way-hold out our hands to th e. stars. A country which is purely scientific minded is not on the road to progress, but on the road, may be to destruction. Science is a dangerous thing unless it is inspired by philosophy and the liberal ar ts, and we do not want the balance to swing entirely on the side ofscience and technology. As the Vice-President said, we have great ideals in this country, ideals of philosophy, of arts and aesthetics, and we must preserve those ideals. President Radhakrishnan's "Inaugural Address" endorsed the d ecisio n to put special stress on the humanities and provided guide li nes: You are calling yourselves an Institute of Advanced Study. Pursuit of truth is not an easy task. We try to seek knowledge and not information, first principles and not particular details. We must find out whether what we are observing, what has come down to us as truth on the sanction of authority, is really truth or requires some kind of adjustment or modification. We should not be the prisoners of the status-quo. Living spirit will always express itself in modified form, whatever has been transmitted to it from the past. We have a tendency to deify error, a tendency to be confronted by illusions which suit our fancies. We should examine those things to find out whether really what we live by, is truth or counterfeit truth. That is the Ci rst question which we have to observe. Both Dr. Zakir Husain and Mr. Chagla pointed out to you that in these days of rising expectations as they say, we attach ourselves more and more to science and technology. We want to raise the living standards of our common people. We can do that only by the application of science and technology. And by human effort, we try to improve the general conditions of our people. Military defence also now requires further development. Al l these things turn our attention to science and technology for practical considerations. Therefore we are tending towards science and technology. But then there is a sense of inadequacy; there is a sense of lack of a compell ing need, a direction, to our life. We ask ourselves if we can be content with mere science and technology or whether we should lay stress on another aspect of our studies, namely the Humanities. I do not say that science and technology 0 1· machines, etc., are really dangerous. Of course that sense was there. Blake once said, 'Art comes from the tree of life, science from the tree of death.' That is how he put it, in a very misleading way. Many thinkers also say, 'it is time for us to cry a halt to scientific inventions, give a moratorium to them and try to adjust ourselves to the creations which we have.' There has been a .~ Ltady pro~rr:J& 30 far a~ our practic ~t lli l .,. i t~ ronctrned. Tho bullocl<>-ra rt Hilv, place w the IJil ycle. tl!e bicycle w the amouwuile. But thm has not resulted i+~ the deh.~,t<,-a't\UR~lM\ offcv.1h, l~dW~l! lil!HfR llbhkfC51.~t'~~ itself r~b~HBMl Vision of the Founding Fathers 3 to these technical creations in an adequate way. But when these technical creations become spectacular, ovenvhelming, there is a danger that it may give rise to some kind oflack of equilibrium. It is that which we sh!)uld avoid. Science and technology-there are people who indulge in them, the greatest brains of the world to-day are devoted to t)le production of nuclear weapons, trying to devise instruments of mass torture and extermination of culture. But that has nothing to do with the machines or the weapons which we are using. It has everything to do with the kind of man. The tragedy to-day lies in the fact that man knows what is righ t, but is defeated by circumstances and is unable to bring it about. That is the essence of human tragedy to-day. We have developed all these weapons. We have developed enormous instruments for the elevation of the human spirit, for the improvement of culture. But why are we not using them for those purposes? The m istake is in the inadequacy of human nature. That is why, I think, the stress on Humanities which you are laying, will correct this onesidedness of our culture, this deficiency in our equipment, and enable us to expand our consciousness, to transcend, to make us understand dearly what is it vve are attempting to do. So the stress on Humanities which you are having is very necessary and very essential. It would be pertinent here to quote from Bronowski's "Preface to the Revised Edition" (1965) of Science and Human Values. In only one respect would I want t9 enlm·ge what I have said in this book about science and human values, if I were starting afresh today... .In the essays as I have written them I have deliberately confined myself to establishing one central proposition: that the practice of science compels the practitioner to form for himself a fun dam en tal set of universal values. I have not suggested that this set embraces all the human values; I was sure when I wrote that it did not; but at the time I did not want to blur the argument by discussing the whole spectrum ofvalues. Now that the crux of my argument has been accepted, I would, were I beginning again, give some space also to a discussion of those values which are not generated by the practice of science-the values of tenderness, of kindliness, of human intimacy and love. These form a different domain from the sharp and, as it were, Old Testament virtues which science produces, but of course they do not negate the values ofs cience. I shall hope to write about the relation between the two sets of values at another time, and to show how we need to li nk them in our behaviour. (p. xiii) India today has many distinguished IITS and IIMS for the teaching of technology and management but its universities which used to be the cc ntr~s of liberaJ education , whi h providc<i the vi~>ion ;wcl~>hap ed 1 ~h e v>}!•: ·s w!:l I! 1 cilit·i .t~ )1 ~ d society nre .shrive ling up aud dying. l rom 4 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDY the preu niversity stage of education too humanities are b eing edged out. Even the Indian Institute of Adva nced Study, the one institution establish ed with largeness of visio n and d edicate d t o the study of literatu re, history, philosophy, the arts, religion, pure s cience and the social sciences, has had to suffer m any vicissitudes: years of neglect, threat ofbanishmen tfrom its prem ises, even of liquidation; subjugation to an inadequate vision that h ad little sympathy with any me thod other than the 'scien tific'. T h e founding fathers of the liAS were visionaries who questioned and explored, and established an Institute w hich they ho ped would push their search de epe r. The very first fu n ctio n they o rganized , commencing in the afternoon of the day the Institute was inaugurated, was a fortnight lon g internatio nal seminar on "Religion and Society". Chagla's "Welco m e Address" succinctly s ta ted the pro blem of modern socie ties a nd advocated the secular attitude: The problem of modern society is how to bring together people of diffe rent religions, a problem which medieval society did not have to face ...

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